The UCSD men’s tennis team hit the road for two straight matches this weekend, and after defeating Division III Redlands University, was handed its first loss of the season by rival Cal Poly Pomona.

On Saturday, the Triton tennis team stretched its winning streak to 10 games and posted another victory against Division III Redlands.

The scores and heated play of the doubles teams made the doubles competition close.

At No. 1 doubles, Sameer Chopra and Bryan Swatt posted the sole Triton doubles loss in a tight 6-8 defeat to Redlands’ Rob Condiotty and Marco Bravo.

The closest doubles match of the day was the No. 2 competition, played by Everett Schroeter and Jeff Wilson who barely pulled out a tiebreaker win against Brian Murphy and Patrick Hepppel, 9-8.

The Tritons tried a new combination of Sean Nagel and Dan Albrecht at doubles that proved to be successful, as they won 8-6 in another closely contested doubles match.

Playing under the Division III doubles scoring method, the Tritons were only able to net one point for winning the doubles competition. UCSD grabbed the one-point advantage and went on to nearly sweep all of the singles matches for a strong victory.

The only singles loss for UCSD went to Swatt when he fell to Brian Murphy in three sets. Murphy won the first set 6-4 and the third set 6-2, while Swatt took the second set 6-3.

Despite the Tritons’ commanding win over the Bulldogs, head coach Eric Steidlmayer was not pleased with his team’s preparation for the match or with the conference match the next day against rival Cal Poly Pomona.

The Tritons met their Division II rival, Cal Poly Pomona, on Sunday morning.

UCSD jumped out to a 2-1 lead in the doubles with Swatt and Chopra at No. 1 and the combination of Nagel and Albrecht at No.3, each recording narrow yet significant 9-7 victories.

Wilson and Schroeter lost a tough 9-8 tiebreaking match at No. 2 against Pomona’s Ryan Terry and Andy Roland.

Blake Wilson-Hayden at No. 4 and Everett Schroeter at No. 6 collected the Tritons’ only singles wins for the day.

Since Swatt (No. 2), Wilson (No. 3) and Emil Novak (No. 5) all lost their singles matches, the overall match score was tied 4-4 with Chopra still battling on the court for the Tritons’ last chance to win.

Chopra at No. 1 was clearly the focus of the match. With both teams rallying for the last point, the match was pivotal. It also gave the Broncos their narrow victory over the Tritons.

Chopra began the first set leading 5-1 and then proceeded to lose six straight games and the tiebreaker to fall behind Pomona’s R.J. Villaroman.

Chopra then proceeded to bounce back and win the second set 7-5, but it was apparent his efforts were beginning to wear him down.

After building a 4-2 lead in the third and final set, Chopra was forced to call time-out due to cramps. After being examined by a trainer, he returned to play and won the next game to establish a 5-2 lead and needed only one more game to seal the victory.

However, Villaroman refused to lay down, and he won the next five games to give the Broncos a 7-5 victory and hand the Tritons their first loss of the season.

After the match, Steidlmayer attempted to salvage something from his team’s first loss of the year.

“”This is our first loss of the season, and we must get better from it,”” he said. “”We must … work on the things needed to move to the next level. There is no excuse not to work better.””